Indonesian Paradise

We arrived on the 25th of February from KL on Asia's budget airline, Air Asia. We stayed one night in Seminyak, near the major party town of Kuta. We stayed in a lovely little place called Losmen Inada. It had charm but we wanted to head up to the north of Bali and away from the party antics of south Bali so we headed out. We stayed in Ubud for one night. I came down with my usual fever and weakness that night so we didn't get to see much of Ubud. We left the next morning to Lovina. The bus made its way through the rainy mountains and over to the North coast. We passed a huge lake and possibly a crater. Indonesia has a number of active volcanoes, one of which is on the island of Bali. At the bus stop, which is the hotel of the bus company we arrived to about 10 touts waiting for the bus to try to convince each of the 7 passengers to stay at their place. We enjoyed our yummy and free but basic rice lunch and boarded the bus to get closer to the hotel/hostel that sounded the nicest in our book. We weren't quite close enough! So after a nice little trek in what felt like 30c weather we arrived at a place that lacked a charm about it. Although I was sad to see the hotel quality room with a massive view of the beach from the bed go, it was too much money for a place that the room was the only nice thing about it. We decided the next best option was the place that was furthest from us at that point. So we hopped in a bemo, a local bus/taxi notorious for ripping off tourists. We did get ripped off, we later learned, and he managed to swipe an extra note from us when returning our change. C'est la vie. An expression I have been using a lot lately. We entered Kubu Lalang, the hotel, and decided that at the same price as the last place, the charm of the location and the staff was so much better, we took it. Every day for seven days we thought, should we leave yet? and each day we thought not yet. We did end up going to the hot springs and we looked for a waterfall, but must have missed the sign. The very relaxed place with great staff gave us a chance to get caught up on my reading. Outside the bungalow were daybeds that were perfect for whiling away the day and reading. I read Shantaram which is 900 pages in 5 days. Shantaram is a great book about an Australian escaped convict and eight years in Bombay. It is incredibly well written and gives an insight into a kind of India I will never see. I highly recommend it.

Then we took the same bus back to Kuta near the airport. That is the town that the bombs went off in 2002 and 2005. There is nightlife and beach. We were more interested in the latter. We went to the beach three days in a row. We would sleep in and maybe do an errand or two in the morning, like get post cards or a desperate search for hair bobbles (which was surprisingly difficult) then have lunch and head to the beach for the afternoon. There is so much accommodation in Kuta that the prices are pretty reasonable. The nice hotels with pools and aircon are about eighteen pounds a night. We couldn't afford them, but we did find a little place with our own bathroom and air con for 9 pounds a night. A little more than we have been spending but everything else was cheap enough so we splurged a little. The air con was bliss and felt so luxurious.